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Rochester Post-Bulletin: Struggle to overcome barriers detailed in music scene book

By
Tom Weber

Rochester Post-Bulletin

November 10, 2017

When Andrea Swensson finally got to meet Prince, she found out he was, well, a prince.

"The biggest thing I learned was how normal Prince was," she said. "I had heard all the stories about how bizarre he was. But I was struck by how down-to-earth and funny and kind he was."

Swensson, a music journalist and host of "The Local Show" on MPR's The Current, details her meeting with Prince at his Paisley Park home in the final pages of her new book, "Got to Be Something Here: The Rise of the Minneapolis Sound." The book traces the seed work done by so many lesser-known, largely African-American musicians that ultimately led to the international breakthrough by Prince.